1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a network management system, and in particular to a network management system and method for obtaining and setting the configuration information of a plurality of managed objects that are network elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a network management system preferably employs a hierarchical management strategy to efficiently manage a network composed of a number of network elements including modems, terminals, transmission devices, switches and the like. Actually, the network elements are managed by using virtual managed-object data instances, which are hierarchically organized into a tree structure for network management. Using such a tree structure, the network operator can easily identify each managed object to perform desired access processing such as setting of necessary information and collection of management information.
A management information storage device which is designed to reduce the number of retrieval operations has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 5-191407. The number of retrieval operations for each managed object is counted. If the number of retrieval operations for a managed object exceeds a predetermined value, then the identification name of that managed object is registered. When a management application requests the retrieval operation of the registered managed object, the registered information of that managed object is sent directly to a management interface without the intervention of the management application. This causes the number of retrieval operations for the managed object that has-been accessed at frequent intervals to be lowered, resulting in the reduced burden on the management application.
In the case where a managed object includes a plurality of child objects of its own, however, it is necessary for an operator terminal to get access to each of the child objects included in the targeted managed object based on the tree structure, resulting in the increased amount of communications between the operator terminal and a management system.
Further, in the case where a new network element is added to the network, the conventional management system cannot handle such a change dynamically because the management operator must create a managed-object instance for that added network element using the tree information.